About Me

I was a reporter and columnist for 40 years for a chain of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a military veteran having served in the United States Army Combat Engineers (Cpl. E-4) and a Korean War veteran with an Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States of America

Saturday, May 9, 2009

There is a raging debate going on in Washington right now over whether the President Obama decision to send in upwards of 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan is the right thing to do.In this video, you will see British and Soviet journalists describe what happened when Britain and Russia tried to conquer Afghanistan. It was a disaster. Source: http://bravenewfilms.org/WATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/ar0A3H1uZlI&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Yesterday, while Sec. of State Clinton was expressing “deep regret” over Monday’s civilian deaths inBalaBaluk, Afghanistan, US military spokespeople were telling a different story.Source: http://bravenewfilms.org/After similar incidents, one of the usual claims made is that the civilian casualties are inevitable since villagers are “used as human shields by the Taliban” but this time, DOD is spinning at a whole new level, claiming that the Taliban rounded up civilians and killed them with grenades – then loaded the bodies into trucks to use are an anti-American photo op.It has been estimated by the Red Cross that 130 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, were slaughtered in the U.S. raids.CNN quickly had Barbara Starr on air repeating the DOD version within hours of the Clinton apology.

Unfortunately for the DOD spinmeisters, the International Committee of the Red Cross has detailed information from the scene – and given the ICRC’s normal reticence and careful neutrality, their credibility certainly beats that of a source that once before attempted to pass off a report from Ollie North that no civilians were killed in a similar attack as a report from a legitimate embedded journalist.

As noted yesterday, the ICRC not only sent investigators after the fact but also had “contacted all sides to warn them that there were civilians and injured people in the area” in advance:Tribal elders in the villages called the ICRC during the fighting to report civilian casualties and ask for help. As soon as we heard of the attacks we contacted all sides to warn them that there were civilians and injured people in the area.“WATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/ThT3u4TWuY8&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Not often do you get to see what a turret gunner sees during a patrol in the mountains of Afghanistan, but in this video you are given an inside look from the turret gunners POV. WARNING: Some of the language is explicit.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/D6oG5FFAIgg&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY THIS VIDEO

This new video shows the aftermath of a vehicle detonated outside of Camp Eggers in Afghanistan. The scenes are grisly and the destruction is widespread. Listen as U.S. troops and Afghans discuss the blast.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/YehueWwxhbo&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Video shows the 10th Mountain Division in an intense and brutal firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/iCqJqgdNqc0&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY THIS VIDEO

It boggles the mind how the mainstream media, especially cable news, can come up with so many mundane stories to report on, but have collectively made a decision to NOT cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq where a combined 200,000 young Americans are deployed. This video clip should be shown on CNN, MSNBC and FOX, but it never will because the vast majority of the people who work in the newsrooms of these cable news stations NEVER spent ONE day in the military. This clip shows a violent firefight at Firebase Vegas between U.S. troops and the Taliban deep inside the mountains of Afghanistan. WARNING: Some of the language is salty, but this is real war and not a video game. TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HEREhttp://www.youtube.com/v/lZ1KYVtFLh4&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY THIS VIDEO

Singer Carrie Underwood sings "Just a Dream" as a salute to our fallen heroes from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/UF2erytxdjo&hl=en&fs=1CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. general in Iraq hedged his bets Friday about whether U.S. combat troops will pull out of the tumultuous city of Mosul on schedule next month, a milestone in the handover of Iraq's security to its own troops.http://tinyurl.com/o9se3z

Mosul is Iraq's third largest city and a stronghold for al-Qaida and other Sunni militant violence despite markedly improved safety in most of the rest of the country. It is a key test of the security contract signed by the United States and Iraq last year that would pull U.S. forces out of the country by 2011.

Gen. Raymond Odierno said U.S. and Iraqi forces are in the midst of a neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweep of Mosul ahead of a June 30 deadline to hand over security for the city to Iraqi forces.